The October Surprise

One of the specters of election politics in the last several elections has been the October Surprise. Democrats especially have vocal that the sneaky GOP would spring something at the last minute that would destroy the democratic candidate. In this cycle the October Surprise seems to have affected the GOP in at least two places.

The first, and most obvious, was the economy. In 1992 Clinton ran on the economy. An arguable case can be made that the issue was bogus. But in this October, the economy has become real. I still believe that some of the problems we are facing are self proclaimed (we've talked ourselves into part of this) but the volatility in the financial markets have been real and may be sustained. While I disagree with both candidate's proposals I believe McCain has been more flat footed in his response. He has seemed even more uncertain than Senator Obama did initially on the Georgian crisis several weeks ago.

The second has been the level of vitriol in the campaign. Both sides have been guilty. Let me offer two examples that I believe were totally inappropriate. This week Senator Obama suspended his campaign to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii and some low life in the GOP raised questions about the trip. That was bad but worse was an item on John Colbert suggesting that Larry Flynt had cast two new porno flicks starring the two vice presidential candidates. One could argue that this was equal treatment but in my mind the implication of the piece was far worse for the female, Governor Palin, than for Senator Biden. There has been a constant drumbeat about every possible bit of negative chatter about Governor Palin, real and imagined, that could be discussed.

Presidential campaigns are important events for America, but the participants should recognize that there should be some bounds of propriety.